Tile cutters have been proposed which include a longitudinally extending bottom plate which has a transversely extending tile stop backing and a longitudinally extending breaking web with a slide which is adaptably moved along a horizontal guide above the breaking web. An angle lever is provided on the slide, with the angle lever being pivotally mounted and including a cutting wheel, a breaker head and an actuating arm. A portion of the bottom plate on one side of the breaking web forming a tile bearing area.
A tile cutter of the aforementioned type is proposed in, for example, EP 0 052 691 A2, with such tile cutter being used extensively by tile layers as well as by do-it-yourselfers.
Conventional tile cutters are characterized by ease of handling as long as the tiles or ceramic plates of a conventional size are to be cut. The tiles are pushed down in the cutting process by one hand of the user onto the breaking web and on one side of the bottom plate and are placed against a back stop of the bottom plate, and, with the other hand of the user, the cutting wheel is drawn or pushed over the tile while scratching the glazing. A side stop for positioning the tile in this case is generally unnecessary.
In conventional tile cutters, major problems arise when narrow tiles are to be cut. The tile strips lie against the back stop with only one narrow front face. For this reason these tile strips, simply by pressing on the breaking web and the bottom plate and pressing against the back stop cannot be manually securely held in position. In the cutting process, the tile strip often slips or tilts so that the cut is no longer made at the required site.
an adjustable side stop for fixing tiles in position is proposed in, for example, FR-A-2 444 547; however, the provision of a side stop increases production costs as well as the price of the tile cutter and makes handling of the tile cutter unwieldy and time consuming.
In FR-A-1 175 303, a tile cutter is proposed which includes a substantially cross-shaped bottom plate wherein one of the transverse arms of the cross-shaped bottom plate is a tile feeding angle which can be moved and rotationally adjusted. The tile is placed on the longer cross arm of which a guide for the cutting wheel slide extends. The longer, comparatively narrow cross arm forms a flat tile bearing area which may be enlarged by a swiveling extension arm on the longitudinal side opposite the feeding angle. Neither a breaker head nor a breaking web are provided. This type of tile cutter is expensive to produce due to the separate tile positioning aids and is complicated to handle and is not suitable for cutting narrow tile strips.